Restorative Justice

Barron County Restorative Justice Program

Barron County Restorative Justice Program (BCRJP) builds safe and healthy communities through alternative resolution processes that address conflict and crime. With the help of trained volunteers, BCRJP team members coordinate several programs for youth and adult offenders, victims of crime, at-risk students and people in conflict. Offenders come to take responsibility for their actions, victims have their needs met and students learn how make positive choices. In addition to restorative conferencing and teen court, the agency does truancy prevention work, offers workshops and runs a Victim Impact Panel for drunk driving.

Eau Claire County Restorative Justice Program

Eau Claire County Restorative Justice Program (ECCRJP) offers Victim Offender Conferencing, Accountability Workshops, Peace Circles, At Risk Accountability Mentoring, and Suspension/Expulsion Re-entry services. These efforts provide victim-centered restorative programming intended to repair the harm caused to victims as a result of the choices of others. In doing so, several community needs are addressed: Victims are given an active voice in the resolution of their cases, offenders are held to a higher degree of accountability, and volunteer community members are afforded the opportunity to be active participants in cases of all types in order to better the community in which they live.

Marathon County Restorative Justice

Marathon County Restorative Justice Program (MCRJP) uses a service delivery model of Victim Offender Conferencing. The anticipated outcomes include increasing offender accountability and diverting youth from further juvenile justice involvement, increasing resources to the youth and their families to reduce risk and build protective factors and providing important assistance and restitution to crime victims. Victims of crime are central to the process and are given a voice.

Our programs:

Victim Offender Conferencing

Victim offender conferencing is a process that provides interested victims of crime the opportunity to meet the offenders in a safe and structured setting, with the goal of holding the offenders accountable for their behavior while providing important assistance to the victim. With the help of a trained facilitator, the victim is able to let the offender know the impact of the crime, receive answers to questions and be involved in developing a restitution plan for the offender to be accountable for the losses incurred. Offenders are able to take responsibility for their behavior, learn the impact of what they did and, if appropriate, develop an agreement for making amends.

Family Conferencing

Family conferencing provides the opportunity for families to meet in a setting mediated by a trained facilitator. Family Conferencing is similar to Victim Offender Conferencing in that it discusses the harm caused by the offender’s actions. Typical referrals are for such crimes as underage drinking, drug use, etc. These crimes have the capability of causing great harm, and families want a structured way to come up with an agreement for future behaviors.

Youth Educational Shoplifting (Y.E.S.) Prevention Program

Teens learn to identify the feelings, thoughts and actions that led them to shoplift and how to make better choices in the future. The program was designed by the National Association of Shoplifting Prevention. Cost: $40.

Youth Restitution Project

Youth restitution provides opportunities for teens without the resources to pay back their victims. Teens referred to this program first participate in a victim offender or family conference. Once a teen has completed community service hours, the victim will receive a donation equivalent to his or her loss through a Victim Assistance Trust Fund, which also accepts donations from the public.

Traffic Violation Program

The goal is to have teen drivers take greater responsibility rather than pay a fine. By attending the conference, teens agree to accept responsibility for their violations, have open communication with an officer and a community member and complete predetermined sanctions. A facilitator guides the conversations about the violations, safety concerns and future choices. After the conference, participants are responsible for writing an essay and completing community service hours. Letters are shared with the municipal Judge and officers of the referring agency. After both sanctions are completed, the case will be successfully closed. Cost: $40.

As a not-for-profit human services organization, Goodwill NCW uses the revenue from our stores to fund a wide variety of innovative programs and services that serve north central Wisconsin communities. In many cases, we collaborate with community partners, who also bring resources to the cause.

Some of these programs create jobs, offer training, and match assistive technology to those who need it. Others address financial, educational, developmental or diversity issues. All make our communities better places in which to live.